Results 14,641-14,660 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I was not.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Deputy Costello knows that three quarters of an hour of this debate has been chewed up by nonsense.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am happy to continue to the substance of this issue. When the heads of this Bill were first published, I indicated that I was in a consultative process. I abandoned the notion contained in the heads of the Bill as originally published of an inspectorate and said I would do what the Human Rights Commission asked for, which was an ombudsman function equivalent in every respect to the powers...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: What I have put in place, and what I stand over completely, is that for the purposes of sovereign Government and accountability to this House, if a dispute arises as to whether a file in the possession of An Garda Síochána should be made accessible to the Executive power of this State, it should only be accessible if the most senior civil servant in my Department, who is not under my...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: If it had done so——

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——and I had come up with the alternative view that one person would suffice, people would be banging the table here and saying that the Patten Commission's proposal was the only way forward and that a single person commission was some kind of lap-dog of the Minister that was obviously deficient, and all the reasons would have been given the other way. Having listened to the debate and...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: We have the Tánaiste.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: To describe the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform as a messenger boy of the Minister is wholly to miss the point. If I wanted to give myself the powers the Labour Party claim I am giving, I would have given them to the Minister full stop.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I would have nakedly done it. However, a Secretary General of a Department, particularly of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, who is the senior civil servant concerned with the security of the State, is not a messenger boy of the Minister. He is an Accounting Officer and departmental head and is not in a position to be directed by the Minister to exercise a solemn statutory...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Let us be clear about this. No more than I could tell the Secretary General to write a cheque for this or that could I ask or direct him to exercise his functions under this proposed section in a manner which was in bad faith, because he has an independent role as an Accounting Officer under statute. If one takes the view that the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Equality and...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: A Minister in these circumstances, in the last analysis, if asked in the House whether there is a document in the possession of the Garda which states A or B, must be in a position by some mechanism, through a responsible office holder, to ascertain whether that is the truth. It would be a sad day if, as Minister, I were to tell the House I could not say a document of such a kind exists or...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: If I had in this amendment vested those powers in a political person such as a Minister, I could well appreciate the Labour Party, with some degree of justification, issuing the press statement it did, and stating: "This man wants to be able to root through every file in the country." However, when the amendment tendered divests the Minister of that power and vests it in the Accounting...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed). (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It would be a sad day if that were not the case.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage. (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Section 22 deals with the question of directives and allows the Minister of the day to give directives which must be complied with as long as he or she lays them before this House. If there was any question of the Garda Commissioner seeking to exercise powers under the relevant section in an unacceptable manner, that is easily remediable under section 22. Deputy Costello continues to ask how...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage. (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Exactly. All those are erected against a trellis of enabling legislation. It is not normal to provide in a constitution of a Garda force all of its constituent elements, its exact management structures, the means of the force's deployment or its organisation on a micro-management level. The same applies to the reserve force. I echo Deputy Finian McGrath's comment that this is an enabling...

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage. (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The words "shift" and "shift work" are not mentioned in the legislation but that does not mean they will be redundant.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage. (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Deputies should remember this statute will enable action to be taken and it is not a micromanagement picture of where the Garda will be in two, three, five, ten or 15 years.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage. (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I have given my reply.

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage. (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I move amendmentNo. 11: In page 10, line 18, to delete "volunteer" and substitute "reserve".

Garda Síochána Bill 2004 [Seanad]: Report Stage. (22 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I should indicate the commencement section provided in the Bill gives the Minister of the day a good deal of room to manoeuvre with regard to deadlines or changes arising and allows for further time to discuss many of the issues involved.